


The Tree of Life

by Zafaria



Category: Wizard101
Genre: Fantasy, Gen, Magic, also what are emotions and relationships and feelings i dont know how to write them, this is maybe the worst thing ive ever written
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-05
Updated: 2017-12-05
Packaged: 2019-02-11 00:08:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12923088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zafaria/pseuds/Zafaria
Summary: Not every battle can go the way you want it. Sometimes they go pretty badly.





	The Tree of Life

**Author's Note:**

> Thing I worked on that I think I like the least. Other people said that the way it's framed is no good, and that I should've started at the burial and cut the rest of it out.  
> Thoughts are appreciated. This is kind of the same framing I was thinking of using in another, totally unrelated, totally more important-to-me-as-an-overly-competitive-student story.
> 
> I'll leave you with some things to consider:  
> 1.) Do the breaks between the present and the past work?  
> 2.) Dialogue is ??? (It'll be better next time I'm sorry)

** The Tree of Life **

    She exited the freestanding Spiral door into the World Tree and the waiting arms of the welcoming party. Mariah was not following behind her.

     Her hair was singed and face raw with scrapes and cuts. Her cyan robes were muddy and disheveled, her cape missing. When they looked at her face, they saw eyes swimming and rimmed with red. Sitting between her green-moss eyes, her nose was abraded and trickling.

      She collapsed in a quivering ball on the damp ground. She shoved the bottom of her palms in her eyes, trying to suppress tears from flowing, maybe by sheer force.

     “Where’s Mari?” one of the girls asked. The others stood around Alia a minute, their mouths agape. One boy gritted his teeth as he silently started crying. Another girl rushed forward and latched on to Alia’s wrist and ankle.  

     “Alia, it’s… you’re okay. It wasn’t you,” she said. “I’m at a loss… I can’t believe...” the girl’s voice trailed off as she tried to console Alia. She brushed her hand over Alia’s shoulder blade, her slender fingers only lightly touching the weeping girl. She leaned her head into Alia’s neck.

     Though she tried to comfort the sobbing Alia, the first tear rolled slowly down her taut face. The rest followed in an unbroken stream. She stifled a tremor, before gasping. The others murmured or threw their hands over their mouths. Many fell to their knees, weakened by pangs of sudden grief. They pressed their balled fists into the ground.

     "I'm…… s-so sorry..." Alia choked out. "S-so-s-sorry…"

     She was babbling now, her voice too mixed with bawling to decipher her words. She tried to explain the battle and the last spell, but the words tumbled out slurred, perplexing. She pressed harder against her eye sockets, shoving her wrists into her cheekbones.

     The memory burned in her mind the further she buried her hands into her face.

 

 

     Alia had seen the spell cast, aware of its power and intent. The flaming glow of the casting symbol had quickly faded as the air brimmed with smoke. She whipped her head towards Mariah and shrieked. Hot and uncontrollable tears flowed from her eyes. Alia flushed the deep color of a ruby.

   Mariah took a moment to comprehend what was going on. She, in turn, looked back at Alia and gave a nervous laugh. An unsettled smile flickered across her face as she held her arms out in front of her. Alia wailed her name, reaching out to her friend. Mariah’s body trembled in rhythm with the shaking corners of her mouth and her bottom lip. The tears rushed from her eyes too, dripping off her chin, collecting on the ground in small pools.

     The meteor hit fast. The force of the blaze knocked both of them back, and when it hit Mariah, she wobbled a second as she stepped back. Mariah collapsed with a deep, silencing thud. Alia floundered trying to sit up after they both fell. She rolled over on her side, screaming as she clutched Mariah’s rigid hand.

     “COME BACK TO ME! MARI!”

     Alia sat with her knees folded under her, shaking her friend and grasping her jaw between her hand. She continued to scream at Mariah. Alia was heaving now.

     She stayed like this a moment before their opponent drew nearer to Alia to taunt her. She glared up at him, and slowly stood, shaking. She swiped at her eyes with hands covered in cold earth.

     Alia gave a frustrated war cry as she cast her spell. She was imbued with the strength of the agony she felt. The golden light emitted from the symbol lasted only a second, bathing her and her friend in a sunshine-glow. Her spell hit the enemy the same way the meteor had hit them. He was pulverized.

    She gave a dejected glance to her partner before scooping Mariah up into her arms. Alia was not very robust, but she felt an adrenaline and anxiety like no other. She was determined to carry Mariah until she couldn’t anymore. She stopped on a hill overlooking a tranquil meadow with pearl orchids speckling the ground.

    “…”

     She opened her mouth to speak, still wailing. She ended up inhaling a few sharp breaths before sitting on the ground, her friend gently laid across her lap. Carefully, she held the back of Mariah’s head up and moved a curl of her brown hair away from her face. Mariah’s pearlescent green eyes stared back up at her, with her mouth worked into a grimace.

     Alia spread her middle and index fingers into a wide “v”-shape and lightly lowered the girl’s eyelids. She then tugged upwards at the corners of her mouth ever-so-slightly. Almost peaceful.

     She sat quiet now. The audible sobbing was gone but the tears would not evaporate for days. Years. Alia trailed the entire length of her sleeve over her eyes, then sat a minute with her nose tucked into her shoulder as she stared down Mariah’s face. Her friend, her partner, her schoolmate. Only Mariah had died, but it seemed she had lost everyone in her life.

    The meadow was spring-green, quiet with a silty terrain. Easily moved. Alia slid Mariah onto the ground and stood up, peering into the distance for a peaceful spot. After a few moments of walking and staring down at the ground in front of her feet, she found a little sliver of grass.

     It was a small hill, in front of an arch. She kneeled on the mound and slowly swept her hand back-and-forth over the grass, letting the blades brush her palms. Then, she grabbed at the ground, peeling up the sod. She cupped her hands and shoveled out the dirt. A wooden plank sat nearby. Alia picked this up and used it to pry up chunks of earth and flip them away from the divot she was making.

     By evening, Alia had finished her grim task. She collected leaves and stacked them in a small pile as a cushion for her friend’s head. Alia unclipped her cloak and wrapped the gentle green fabric around Mariah. Carefully, she placed her head on the leaves. Alia slipped her silver ring engraved with lions onto Mariah’s hand, then placed her hand over her stomach.

     _Something more…_ , Alia thought as she looked around.

     The pearl orchids and fire lilies. When she was done collecting, she had a bouquet of red, lavender, and pink flowers that filled the space between her arms. She lined the grave with them, tucked them under Mariah’s arms, and arranged them in her friend’s hair. Alia held a single lavender orchid in her hands, twirling the stem between her fingers. She slid the delicate blossom behind her ear.

      The saddest part of the process was when Alia began to place the dirt back over her friend. Slow handful by handful, she started by covering her feet. She wanted to see her friend for the last time as long she possibly could. Her tears fell into the grave and mixed with the dirt. Granules of sediment worked their way into the creases of her hands, under her nails, and between her fingers. She patted the ground firmly, and placed more blooms on the top.

     “It’s a place a theurgist like you might like.” Before she started sniffling, Alia twisted her face into a pained smile at the thought. “I’m… sorry Mari. I really…am sorry.”

       Alia sat at the burial mound, stacking stones into a cairn. She grabbed the wooden plank and unsheathed her athame. For a while, she sat and stared at the wood grain, with her hand curved under her chin, the knife gripped just below. The blade started to cautiously notch the wood, with slow, even scrapes.

     Engraved in the plank: “Mariah Silver. A rare theurgist. She was not only capable of making flowers bloom in fields, but also in hearts.”

     Alia carved an additional “With great love and admiration - Lia” at the base of the board. She placed it vertically at the head of the burial mound and wobbled it to stake it into the ground. After, she tapped it a few times to make sure it stood solemn and sturdy.

     The night sky had engulfed the gentle glow of the setting sun. The stars twinkled above as thin, dark grey clouds hovered. Crickets had chirped an ambient, encompassing requiem. Alia had stared at the sky with tears flowing over the edge of her eyes like floodwaters breaching the banks of a river.

 

 

      Alia pulled her hands from her stinging eyes, her lips still quivering. Shuddering, she pressed her chin and nose into her knees. Her forest green hair fell forward and shadowed her face. Only her eyes remained visible above her kneecaps, staring distantly out over the rest of the room. The other students sat hugging each other and themselves; they leaned against the walls of the Tree for support. Their vigor had been sapped from mourning.

      The World Tree, usually full of life, looked tawny, drier now, and gloom created a silencing blanket in the air. It never returned to its verdant nature.

    

 


End file.
